Royal Palace (Lost)

PHOTO - - Palacio Real (desaparecido).

The Royal Palace was one of the most important buildings in Tordesillas. Two noteworthy aspects to take into account: it was the temporary headquarters of Castilian Monarchies mobile Courts and that was the place where Queen Joanna I of Castile lived for 46 years.

The palace of Alfonso XI and Pedro I was turned into the convent of nuns of the Order of St. Clare. The king Henry the third decided to build a palace near the previous one that overlooked the Duero river and other wonderful landscapes.

Its two-storey rectangular perimeter was mud wall and masonry works. It had three doors, the main one, placed to the south, overlooked the river, another one to the west, in San Antolín Street and the third one to the north opposite the Palace of Alderete.

The palace also had an outside corridor that run along the south façade and more than the half of the west one. The last part was turned into a tall passageway over the street to connect with San Antolín Church.

In the middle of the façade placed at the south, there was a three-storey tower whose ground plan was square shape. A corridor used to observation was at the third floor.

The living rooms were covered with wooden coffered ceilings and the walls with precious tapestries. These rooms set out round two courtyards and a vegetable garden to the east part. Due to the bad quality of building materials, it needed constant repairs. After the Queen Doña Juana died, the building was abandoned. In spite of the repairs to avoid the building being ruined, it was knocked down in 1773, when the king Charles III reigned.